Let plum blossoms be envious,
Chrysanthemums be ashamed !
You are crowned Queen of Mid-autumn
At the Grand Exhibition of Flowers.
How unfeeling of the poet Qu Yuan ①
To be so cold towards you
As to deny you a place
In his masterpiece.

① An allusion to Li Sao (Encountering Sorrow), a chapter in Qu Yuan’s “The Elegies of Chu”, in which he listed many precious flowers and plants as symbolic of men of high virtue, but omitted to mention the cassia flower, presumably out of bias.